Version 1 Mentors
Please put the mentors of V1 of SOTF TV here. Team 13 'The Mysterious Stranger' "I'm winning because I never learned how to lose." Name: ??? ('Mysterious Stranger') Age: Unclear, seems late 20s - early 30s Gender: Female Appearance: The stranger shows as little as herself as possible, always being shown on camera in silhouette, a low brimmed fedora tugged over much of her face, as if the darkness weren't enough. Though her voice betrays her gender, little else does, a trenchcoat concealing her figure, if not her height, which is abnormally tall. The stranger stands at least 6 and a half feet tall, and though her attire hides her shape, she seems very slender, yet... not lanky, holding herself with grace and poise. Biography: She wouldn't be very mysterious if there was much here, would she? Suffice to say, the stranger is both aloof and quietly confident in personality - some might say haughty - remaining cryptic at almost all times and refusing to communicate unless she chooses to do so. Red Team 'The Military Officer' "What this team needs to achieve success is discipline and tactics" Name: Lieutenant Colonel Max Briggs Age: 37 Gender: Male Appearance: Lt. Col. Briggs dresses, whenever possible, in full military uniform, taking great pride in his position in the United States Army. He has black hair, buzzed short, and surprisingly soft, blue eyes. He is not a tall man, standing at 5'6", but he maintains a notable presence through his impeccable posture and his penchant to stand stock still, never fidgeting. He speaks only when necessary, but he has none of the spite of a drill sergeant, instead relying on calm, rational explanations to convey his messages. Biography: Lt. Col. Briggs has very little interest in SOTF-TV, or, for that matter, most civilian affairs. His passion is for the military, which has served as his whole career. He is a highly competent tactician, well-respected by those above and below him on the chain of command. He is also highly adaptable, which is a large part of the reason he was chosen for this assignment. Seeing an opportunity to boost recruitment, the army offered to supply a mentor for one of the teams on this season's SOTF-TV. Briggs detests his job in this capacity, but has resolved to do it to the best of his ability, for the organization he loves, and has thus far managed to maintain a fairly diplomatic presence with the producers and other mentors, though he views the lot of them as spineless and undeserving of their positions. After all, how are you supposed to help someone survive a combat situation when you've never been under fire yourself? The only one he holds in any esteem at all is Jared Clayton, who at least has some experience to back himself up. Orange Team 'The SDA Teacher "I have full confidence in the Academy's ability in this competition. As in every other area, we will excel." Name: Dr. Millard Smith Age: 35 Gender: Male Appearance: Dr. Smith is a small, thin man, who walks with a slight hunch. He would be handsome, were his face not constantly creased with worry lines. He wears his brown hair slicked back, and has let his facial hair get out of control in the past few days, resulting in a noticeably rough stubble. At school, he dresses with the formality expected off teacher; off duty, he wears shorts and t-shirts whenever possible. Biography: Dr. Smith was employed at Silver Dragon Academy, as a teacher of computer sciences. His class was fairly unremarkable, and his performance nothing above adequate for the prestigious academy, but he was a bit more morally flexible than his colleagues, and thus, when the producers of SOTF-TV came looking for a teacher to fill the roll of mentor, Dr. Smith accepted the offer. As soon as this became known to the academy, he was fired, however, this has not yet become widely known. Dr. Smith believes that, should he succeed in leading his team to victory, and ensuring the return of some SDA students, the academy will have no choice but to restore his position. Failing that, he plans to use the publicity of the show to get a book deal and milk the whole thing for all that it's worth. At the moment, he's putting on a patriotic line, and still acting as though he represents his school, because that's the story the public wants to hear. Yellow Team 'The Corporate Sponsor "Verizon: With explosively good service!" Name: Wilson Howards Age: 54 Gender: Male Appearance: Wilson is a clean-cut, proper looking man, with grey hair combed over his balding head, and a suit cut to flatter his slight paunch. While fairly short and stocky, he still manages to cut an impressive figure, the result of years of practice at press conferences. He carries a briefcase everywhere he goes, and speaks in a calm, measured voice, seemingly never stirred to emotion. Biography: Wilson is one of the top PR men of the Verizon mobile phone corporation. His loyal service over the past three decades has of late earned him a number of cushy posts, the latest being his stint as a mentor on SOTF-TV. Wilson was the one who first proposed his company's sponsorship of the show, a move that resulted in great boons to both phone company and television program. Unfortunately, he doesn't have the slightest idea of what SOTF-TV actually entails, having been briefed only on the basics (some kids kill each other to try to be the last survivor). More than anything, his loyalty is to his parent company, and the financial interests thereof. He's more concerned with shoehorning in advertisements and product plugs wherever he can than in actually seeing his team come out ahead. Of course, looking like a moron is bad PR, as is being the first team eliminated, so he plans to at least attempt to look competent. His abilities in this regard remain to be seen. Green Team 'The SOTF Protester "I'm only here to say that you're all sick bastards for watching this nonsense. How can you condone mass murder?" Name: Susan Crawford Age: 31 Gender: Female Appearance: Susan is a short (5'2"), slightly heavy (140 lbs) woman, with short blond hair and dark blue eyes. She dresses surprisingly conservatively, given her radical liberal political views. Favoring light colors and understated jewelry, she would be perfectly at home in any corporate office in America. The only sign that she is anything but what she appears comes when she opens her mouth. Her default mode of speech is shouting, and her message is always the same: bring an end to state-sponsored war crimes. Biography: Susan Crawford isn't just a random bystander plucked off the streets: she is, in fact, the older sister of Erin Crawford, one of the contestants in a run of SOTF-TV seven years ago. Susan watched her little sister be tortured to death on screen, then discovered that fans online had remixed the footage to peppy music. Since that day, her life has revolved around bringing an end to the show. She is one of the most high profile opponents of SOTF-TV active today, the author of three books on the subject, and a frequent guest on talk radio shows. A large part of her success comes from the fact that she is anything but a practiced speaker, frequently devolving into screaming insults at her opposition. In fact, she's a perfect opponent for the producers of SOTF-TV because she just doesn't come across very well while delivering her message. She is completely disinterested in everything except using her position as a mentor to cast further light on the atrocities represented by SOTF-TV. Blue Team 'The Foreign Ambassador' "It's so nice of you to let me participate in this cultural experience. I'll do my best." Name: Marie Roux Age: 42 Gender: Female Appearance: Marie is a very tall (5'11"), thin woman, with greying red hair. She dresses with a practiced casualness belied by the expensive jewelery she always wears. Her face is open and friendly, and it is rare that she is not smiling broadly. She speaks very clearly, enunciating each word carefully. After her long years of practice with English, only the barest hints of her accent remain, except on those occasions she chooses deliberately to play it up. Biography: Marie is a minor French diplomat with an assistant's position at the united Nations. She is also a huge fan of SOTF-TV, having discovered the show on one of her first tours in the US. Marie has long been a supporter of the show, using it to illustrate examples in her speeches and extolling its virtues wherever she got the chance. She has, in fact, proposed a multinational version of the game, in which students from different countries compete to bring their home nation honor. She views the current team setup as a step in the right direction. When Marie was approached about the possibility of serving as a mentor for one of the current season's teams, she eagerly accepted. While she hopes her team will emerge triumphant, she has decided she will be content simply with putting on a good show, and hopes that a good showing will allow her to push her personal inspiration further. Purple Team )]]'The Winner "Talk all you want about gameplans and strategy. Fact is, I didn't need no stats and technical know-how to walk out of there the sole survivor, and that's why my team is winning." Name: Jared Clayton Age: 22 (participated in SOTF: TV four years ago) Gender: Male Appearance: Jared has brown, curly hair that falls to his shoulders. He's quite scrawny, with a ragged goatee doing nothing to hide his weak chin and poor complexion. He certainly doesn't look like much, at only 5ft 7" and 110 lbs, but a criss-cross of scarring covering his left cheek seems to suggest there's more to Jared than meets the eye. Biography: A cocky, brash youngster, Jared's confidence (or arrogance, depending on who you ask) comes from the knowledge that in spite of being the longest of longshots to win a deadly game like SOTF: TV... he pulled it off. In a fifty student game, Jared amassed an impressive 8 kills through a combination of guile and ruthlessness, fully half of his tally amounting after he played dead for six straight hours to ambush a group with a grenade. Jared also managed to turn the tables on a torturer very early on, tearing out his attacker's throat with his teeth as she attempted to kiss him (having tied him up and gouged his face several times with a razor blade beforehand). Showing no real signs of psychological damage from his experience, Jared has the self-assurance of a man who knows that not only has he experienced the worst life has to offer, he's laughed in the face of it. Black Team 'The Waning Star "This is even more exiciting than the time that kid beat the final challenge on my gameshow by one second! You remember that? ...Oh, you don't? ...Right." Name: Pete Finch Age: 44 Gender: Male Appearance: A slightly overweight man with jet black hair that is just a little too dark, everything about Pete Finch screams of a man on the slide. Finch's trademark smile now seems forced, strained, with all the lighting tricks and make-up in the world unable to hide the lines beginning to mark his face. Even Finch's attire is just a little over the hill, as whilst he wears a suit (sans tie), his blazer is patched at the elbows, his pants beginning to get a little threadbare. Biography: Finch is a shrewd and ruthless man with a lot of natural flair and charisma, although his showmanship can sometimes be undermined by the fact that he perhaps believes himself a little more relevant than he actually is. 20 years ago, Pete Finch was a man that had it made. One of the most popular hosts on television, Finch was one of the very few sparks of life in the world's entertainment industry. Charismatic and witty, it was often said that people tuned in to watch Finch far more than whatever program he was hosting. 6 years later, Finch's 30th birthday present was SOTF-TV and an astonishingly fast collapse into obscurity. Finch turned down the chance to host the first season of the show to launch a new gameshow of his own. By the time the second season rolled around, the TV executives wouldn't take Finch on his hands and knees. Within a few short weeks, Finch was old news, and it only went downhill from there. Although viewers still tuned in to see Finch, these numbers declined year after year as SOTF-TV drew away more and more of his audience. When the offer eventually came in for a chance to appear on the latest season as a guest, Finch took it with both hands. For him, this was an opportunity that couldn't possibly be missed. Upstage the existing hosts, be funnier, smarter, maybe throw in a cheap plug here and there... and win... and maybe he'd get the chance to undo his mistake from all those years ago. White Team 'The Writer "The emotion, the plot, the drama—it's all so... inspirational. Now we just need a happy ending." Name: Rose Wolfe Age: 28 Gender: Female Appearance: Rose dresses casually and simply, with her only concession to fashion being a slight medieval flair to the cuts of her garments. She is a fairly pretty woman, always smiling. She can't quite seem to sit still, usually fidgeting with her notepad, her glasses, or her long black hair. While she is quite thin, and looks to be in fairly good shape, Rose spends the majority of her time writing, and gets winded very easily if involved in strenuous activity. Biography: Rose is an up-and-coming fantasy novelist, known for her compelling plots and minimalist style. She is also something of a pioneer, seeking to reestablish the dying genre of fantasy literature by modernizing it. With the consent of the producers of SOTF-TV, she has penned a series of tie-in novels, dealing with the same premise set in other worlds, with elves and magic. Surprisingly, the books were fairly well received, even by critics. As a result of her research, she has a fair amount of knowledge of the SOTF premise and the ways in which the game functions, as well as winning and losing strategies. She views her job as a mentor as more of a field research project than anything else, hoping to gain inspiration for her next novel, to make it even better than her past work. Pink Team 'The Average Joe "Uh... my name's Mike, I'm an accountant from Chicago and I have fou- Wait, why my team's going to win? Uh... uh... I'm good with numbers, I guess." Name: Mike Patterson Age: 38 Gender: Male Appearance: An African-American man who looks younger than he is, the only lines on Mike's face are those produced by smiling. Mike has a sensible crew cut and is always clean shaven, presenting himself very smartly at all times, wearing a shirt, tie and suit pants. Standing at 6ft even, Mike has a fairly average build which belies his sedentary lifestyle. Biography: Mike is, as his title would suggest, just an average guy from Chicago. An accountant by trade, he wound up on SOTF: TV as the result of a Coka-Cola sponsored competition, wherein 'lucky cans' were entered into a draw, with the prize being a slot on the next season of the show. On a whim, Mike submitted his 'lucky can' and against the odds, won the competition. Although quite down to earth and logical, Mike is very much out of his element, a little bit overawed by the knowledge that he's on TV, seeming to have something of a case of stage fright. Gold Team 'The Gambler "I'm the ace up their sleeve." Name: Drake Fortune Age: 31 Gender: Male Appearance: A lean man who seems more toned than slender, Drake has a relaxed, slouchy demeanour and posture which knocks a couple of inches from his height, making him look somewhat shorter than his 6'3". Very clean cut and handsome, Drake maintains a small patch of hair on his chin, dark brown contrasting with his blond-highlighted hair. Drake's attire is generally very casual, tending to wear a leather jacket, t-shirt, and jeans. Biography: Drake is a laid back, very confident man, who deflects any accusations of arrogance with a good-natured, friendly personality, although undercut by his tendency to put odds on anything at any given moment. Drake is in fact a professional gambler who has also dabbled in bookmaking itself, and he has either a knack for playing the system or is exceedingly lucky, depending on who you ask. Drake is knowledgeable and canny, but has a habit of keeping back information or choosing to remain quiet, which causes him to fade into the background a little at times. Brown Team 'The Intrepid Reporter' "'Plucky journalist guides team to victory' - how's that for a headline?" Name: Aiko Yoshida Age: 26 Gender: Female Appearance: A petite, youthful-looking woman of Asian descent, Aiko seems as though she could've stepped straight out of high school. Not just her face, but everything about her makes her appear far younger than she actually is. From hair streaked with every colour under the rainbow to typically 'punk' clothing with far more belts than can be entirely useful, it's very hard to believe that Aiko has a master's degree in journalism. Biography: Aiko Yoshida is not all that she seems to be, and her appearance isn't the half of it. She lied and cheated her way through high school and managed it all the way through college too. That's not to say Aiko isn't intelligent enough to work for herself - that's what prevented her from getting caught, but she certainly didn't put in her fair share of effort. ...Not into studying, at least. Aiko projects a far different personality to reality most of the time, putting on an optimistic, cheery mask for her day to day life to starkly contrast with her callous and cold interior. When she's very mad, the mask can slip, but this is an extremely rare occurance. Aiko's plan involves manipulating her costars just as much as her charges... Gray Team 'The True Expert "Why am I going to wi- WHY am I going to win!? Because I know everything that ever happened in this game, that's why! My knowledge is unparalled, I know every last tactic down to the most minute detail. My team will be triumphant because I have a master plan!" Name: Martin "MarWIN" Winchester (nobody actually calls him that) Age: 26 Gender: Male Appearance: In spite of his age, Martin is already balding in typical male pattern, with his hairline in full retreat, though he does not yet have any patches in his remaining hair, a thick blond thatch. He wears contact lenses, though can be occasionally seen sporting thick lensed glasses perched atop his beak like nose. Oddly enough, Martin is actually in pretty good shape, a certain amount of wiriness on his 6ft even frame. Typically, he wears shirts with obscure Internet memes on them, as well as jeans which, disturbingly, always seem to be holed in the exact same place in the knee... Biography: Martin is probably the biggest expert on SOTF: TV not employed as part of the shows production team. He's been writing about SOTF from 15, and attracted a serious following on the Internet the moment his acclaimed first blog 'How not to start your first day on TV' went live. Subsequently, Martin has carved out a living more or less entirely on his writing and statistical analysis of the game, showering his followers with inane, bizarre, and on certain select occasions, genuinely useful and/or interesting stats. This, however, has swelled his ego tremendously, and a man already difficult to get along with in person is almost insufferable when the topic is his 'field of expertise'. To Martin, being wrong about SOTF: TV is inconceivable, and he will own on the internets anybody who tries to argue against his views. It's rumored that one of Martin's biggest desires is to compete in a game himself and prove all of his theories right in a shower of glory. Category:SOTF-TV